Karl Marx 
The Emperor Napoleon IM and Prussia 

New-York Daily Tribune. 
Nr. 5986, 30. Juni 1860 

The Emperor Napoleon III. and Prussia. 

Berlin, June 12, 1860. 

The following are extracts from Mr. About's newest pamphlet, which will 
be published in Paris in the course of a few days: 

"Let Germany know that the friendship of France has its value. Did not 
our soldiers rush to the Black Sea to rescue the Ottoman Empire from 
destruction? Has not the emancipation of the Moldo-Wallachians been 
effected solely by our influence, without bloodshed? Italy has entered the 
paths of independence and unity under our auspices—our armies paved the 
way along which it now marches onward, led by Piedmont; and if Heaven 
shall permit this great work to be accomplished, and that a nation of 
26,000,000 of souls shall be organized at our gates, France will not take 
umbrage, for she feels that order cannot be established in Europe so long 
as there are oppressed nationalities and kings who are insupportable to their 
subjects. 

Never was that noble nation (Germany) so great as from 1813 to 1815, for 
never was it so united. When a Frenchman speaks with admiration of the 
campaigns which were so terrible to France, his testimony is worthy of 
attention. The sentiment of German honor and independence, surging up 

20 against conquest, worked miracles. Germany has but one passion—one heart. 

It raised itself up as one man, and the defeat of our incomparable armies 
showed what united Germany could do. 

Well, let Germany be again united. France ardently desires it, for she loves 
the Germanic nation with disinterested affection. Were we devoured by that 
brutal ambition attributed to us by certain Princes, we should not impel 
Germany to unity. Let Germany be united and form so compact a body as 

Karl Marx 

to render invasion impossible. France sees without fear an Italy of 26 millions 
of souls rising on her southern frontier; she would not fear to see one of 
32 millions of Germans on her eastern confines. 

The Germans begin to see the folly of keeping up 37 different Govern- 
ments, and are resolved to become united. 

Prussia will be their nucleus, because Prussia represents freedom of trade 
and thought, whereas Austria represents prohibition, despotism and all the 
horrors engendered by its Concordat. Therefore will they rally round Prussia. 
But Prussia must choose between the right divine and the rights of the people. 
While some Princes are clinging to a false legitimacy, really legitimate 
empires are being founded on the basis of universal suffrage. The King of 
Naples affirms that his subjects belong to him, and they oppose an armed 
repudiation of these pretentions. The Emperor of the French and the King 
of Sardinia declare with modern philosophy that peoples belong to them- 
selves alone, and two great nations with all but unanimity select them for 
their chiefs. Will the Prince of Prussia declare for the right divine or the rights 
of the people? It is the more necessary that he should make this declaration, 
as in 1849, a National Assembly, the issue of universal suffrage, brought a 
legitimate crown to the King in his palace. What did he? He declared for the 
right divine against the popular right; he would not accept the crown unless 
offered to him by Princes, and the Prussian clodhoppers applauded saying: 
"We would not have a throne on which Democracy has spat.' Saxony and 
Baden had dismissed their Sovereigns. Two Prussian armies marched in the 
name of divine right, and invaded Saxony and Baden. The Saxon King was 
replaced on his throne, as was also the Duke of Baden; and after all had thus 
been adjusted, and the Baden Democratic army had sought shelter in Switz- 
erland, the Prussians shot in cold blood 26 German patriots. 

A Prussian Democrat lately wrote to the people in Wurtemberg, "Why don't 
you join us?' They replied, 'If we were Prussians we should all be exiled, with 
the poet Uhland at our head.' 

Nothing is more strange nor more true than this assertion. Since 1848 all 
the princes of Europe, including even the Pope, have granted amnesties. The 
Prussian amnesty has not yet appeared. If the Regent wishes to deserve well 
of his country, let him summon back the exiles and become the testamentary 
executor of the Parliament of 1849, as the Napoleons are testamentary 
executors of the French Revolution! 

Let us here correct certain erroneous notions which exist in Germany. 
They suppose, on the strength of certain feudal journals, that the French 
Empire is in a state of slavery—that the Imperial rule has gagged thought, 
suppressed the national representation, and tossed our Uberties to the dogs. 
The Prussians believe themselves to be more free and happy than we are, 

The Emperor Napoleon III and Prussia 

under their liberal and parliamentary Government. Itis true that the Emperor 
of the French works out the grandeur and prosperity of France with a dictato- 
rial power; but it is essentially democratic, as it was confided to him by the 
people. But is not feudalism rampant in Prussia? The French army is devoted 
to the Emperor, but it does not belong to him but to the nation. Does the 
Prussian army belong to the King or to the nation? 'To the King,' said the 
other day, the Prime Minister Hohenzollern, 'the Deputies of the nation have 
nothing to do with the affairs of the army.’ 

It is true that with us the liberty of the press is subjected to severe restric- 

1 o tions, but the right to print and publish is not confiscated ; it is only postponed.. 

The nation consents to remain silent around a Prince who does great things, 
as the friends of a philosopher or a great writer keep silent in his cabinet. 
As for the right, it remains intact, and Frenchmen will have the right to 
reclaim it, in good time and place, should the Emperor forget (!) to restore 
it to them. The writers of Berlin are more free, perhaps, despite their taxes, 
and caution money, etc., but who shall guarantee to them the duration of their 
privilege? The hand which gave may take away. The difference between us 
and them is that we lend our liberties to the Emperor, whereas they borrow 
theirs from the Regent. 

The Germans fancy that we have allowed ourselves to be despoiled of our 
Parliamentary régime. True. Our Parliament has changed since 1848. Itis no 
longer a coterie representing 400,000 or 500,000 persons; it is the whole 
nation which sends its Deputies to the Corps Législatif. This Assembly, 
chosen, like the Emperor himself, by universal suffrage, no longer enjoys 
the ridiculous privilege (!) of interrupting the march of public affairs, of 
replacing action by speeches, union by coalition, the public interest by 
private vanity, the serious progress of a great people by the flattering of some 
petty oratorical ambition—but it enjoys the inestimable right of voting all the 
taxes and all the laws of the Empire. Have we any reason to be jealous of 
the Prussian Constitution? Is the principle of Ministerial responsibility 
applied in Prussia? Not yet. Have the Chambers the recognized right to 
refuse to vote the taxes? No. And what are the Prussian Chambers? That 
which corresponds with our Corps Législatif, or (!) the House of Commons 
is united by a mechanism rather ingenious than democratic. A District is 
given, which pays 300,000 francs direct taxation. The tax payers are separat- 
ed into three squads, the 15 or 20 large proprietors who pay 100,000 francs, 
are the first class of electors; the second class consists of 200 or 300 who 
pay another 100,000 francs, and the third, of the 2,000 or 3,000 who pay the 
remainder. Each of these classes elect six Electors, and these eighteen 
Electors elect a Deputy. Therefore the middling classes can never be repre- 
sented, and this is why M.de Vincke, who sat on the Conservative side in 

Kal Marx 

the Frankfort Parliament, is now, without having changed his opinions, the 
most advanced democrat of the Prussian Chambers. Can Uberai Germany 
do much with such a Chamber? And even when it evinces some desire for 
progress, is it not cramped and pushed back by the Upper House?—an 
Assembly consisting of nobles who have seats by right or by birth, and 
members selected by the King from candidates presented to him by the 
nobiüty, the Universities and large towns—on one side the right of birth, on 
the other the Sovereign's choice. It is recruited from no other sources, 
therefore is it opposed to aU liberal measures. It lately rejected the principle 
of civil marriages by a large majority. It nearly raised an insurrection against 
the Minister who proposed that the nobles should be compelled to pay taxes 
Uke the other classes of the citizens. 

This Constitution is not perfect. They will do weU to modify it if Germany 
should resolve to throw itself into the arms of Prussia. 

It is very desirable that Prussia should show a little more fairness toward 
the Governments which are based on universal suffrage. We do notreproach 
the Court of Berlin for the violence of the German press, nor do we expect 
the Prince Regent to gag his subjects even when they insult us; but we must 
be permitted to remark that if the Siécle and Opinion Nationale express 
themselves in offensive terms against a Sovereign who is not the enemy of 
France, the Moniteur, or at least the semi official journals hasten to repair 
the injury by administering a severe reprimand. 

It would also be extremely desirable that the political men of Prussia 
should abstain from fulminating in the Prussian parüament attacks openly 
directed against France. When M. de Vincke talks in the Prussian Chamber 
of Deputies of reconquering from us Alsace and Lorraine, the French nation 
is not sufficiently excited by this frivolity to take up arms; but it takes 
pleasure in declaring that such imprudences are never committed in France. 
Since the accession of Napoleon III. and especially since the annexation of 
Nice and Savoy, German writers and perhaps even German Princes, have 
somewhat loudly manifested an unjust mistrust of French policy. They 
persist in attributing to us the project of annexing the Rhenish provinces, 
and encroaching on the soil of Germany. This groundless alarm is so loudly 
expressed and so obstinately persevered in that it might inspire us with bad 
thoughts were we less equitable. It is certain that if you accost in the street 
the most gentle and inoffensive man, and you say to him: Sir you mean to 
slap my face, you may swear that you have no such intention, but I know 
that you intend to slap my face. You need not swear to the contrary, for I 
won't believe you on your oath, for I know that you do mean to slap my face. 
But I am stronger than you. I am not afraid of you. I will crush you like a 
fly, and I defy you to slap my face. Would not the gentlest and most in- 

The Emperor Napoleon III and Prussia 

offensive man find good reason to do what was demanded of him, and would 
he not inflict the slap on the face of his provoker? 

But, no provocations will cause France to depart from the line which she 
has traced for herself. We have too much justice to think of conquering the 
territory of a foreign nationality. Would to Heaven that the German Con- 
federation was animated by the same ideas! It would not have taken the 
Duchy of Posen, nor attacked the north of Schleswig, nor declared Trieste 
to be a Germantown. As for us, we do not fear to affirm that Lorraine and 
Alsace are French, because they themselves have proved it against Germans. 

We keep what belongs to us. We demand nothing more! We believe that all 
the natural frontiers, all the rivers of Europe, are not worth half so much 
for the defense of our territory as aregiment of Zouaves or Chasseurs-a-pied 
with fixed bayonets. 

May we be permitted to add one piece of advice to these friendly counsels? 

It will prove how deeply we are interested in German unity and the future 
of Prussia. 

Much as the name of Prussia, its Constitution, the person of its august 
Regent excite the sympathies of Germany, still more so, perhaps, does its 
bureaucracy inspire feelings of abhorrence, not only in Germany but among 
honest men of all countries. On the 12th of May, 1860, aray of light fell on 
the maneuvers of the Prussian police, and revealed the most singular ad- 
mixture of clumsiness and immorality, zeal, and imprudence, incendiary 
provocation and splashing Macchiavelism. 

Here are the facts as they have been narrated to the Prussian Parliament 
by an honorable deputy of the Grand Duchy of Posen, Mr. Niegolewski. 
Three Prussian bureaucrats, M.de Puttkammer, President of the Province 
of Posen, M. de Baerensprung, President of the Police, and Mr. Post, Secre- 
tary-Interpreter, were in search of some means whereby they might make 
manifest their zeal and entitle themselves to the gratitude of the Government. 
M.de Puttkammer is a great personage, something more than a Prefect, 
something less than a Minister, M. de Baerensprung is a man of note and 
importance. Post is a poor devil of no note. 

The first thinks, the second dictates, the third writes. These three worthies, 
by dint of digging into their bureaucratic brains, conceive the grand idea of 
getting up an insurrection in Posen, that they may have the honor and glory 
of putting it down. The part of a provocative agent, against which even 
Vidocq recoiled, inspired them with no disgust. They disguise themselves 
as Poles discontented with Prussian rule. They establish in their bureaus a 
false democratic committee, and put themselves in communication with the 
Central Committee residing in London. 'Send us,' they write, ‘send us 
emissaries, proclamations, arms.’ On the other hand, they send money to 

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Karl Marx 

London, the money of the Budget, the thalers wrung from unfortunate 
tax-payers. Here are taxes weh employed. The treasurer of the enterprise 
was M. Stolzenberg, the Secretary of Police. The letters were to be addressed 
to Madame Ruch, wife of a counselor in the Supreme Tribunal. 

The London Committee did not take the bait very readily. It hesitated, was 5 
mistrustful. It seemedto scentthe treason. Butthe bureaucratic trio implored 
with such humility for some letters and circulars; it spoke with such ad- 
miration of General Mazzini; with so much emotion of the prose of Felix 
Pyat, the very bread of life, that some revolutionary men in London, in- 
cluding even Mazzini himself, entered into correspondence with them. This 10 
perfidious game was played for three years, and would have been played on 
till now, had it not been suddenly stopped by a thunderbolt from M. Niego- 
lewski. 

The eloquent orator of Posen laid on the table the original text of 24 letters, 
written by Mr. Post, dictated by M. Baerensprung and inspired by Mr. Putt- 15 
kammer. The first is dated August 19,1858; the last April, 1860. No one, not 
even the Minister of the Interior, M. de Schwerin, ventured to contest the 
authenticity of these documents. We have had them translated by a sworn 
interpreter. They prove that the Prussian police excited the Committee in 
London to send incendiary proclamations to the Grand DuchyofPosen;that 20 
it paid the expenses for printing them in London, and caused them to be 
distributed to suspected persons, that they might afterward be seized and 
the police might then manifest their zeal to the detriment of some ofthe King 
of Prussia's subjects; that Puttkammer, Baerensprung, and their ac- 
complices, by means of entreaties and promises, induced the Committee in 25 
London to dispatch to them an emissary, named Rewitt, who was furnished 
by them (the Police) with a passport; that they allowed him to circulate freely, 
that he might compromise as many people as possible; that they then arrested 
him, and had him condemned to two years’ imprisonment. After this fine 
exploit, M. de Baerensprung, the savior of order, which he had disturbed, set 30 
up as a candidate for Parliament, and was rejected. But he still carried on 
his correspondence with Mazzini, and the Committee in London, swearing 
to them that Rewitt had been betrayed by the Polish nobility (letter of July 5, 
1859), and that numbers of the nobility were in the Police. (Letter of July 19, 
1859.) 35 

These functionaries, in their letters, held up the nobility and clergy, in- 
cluding Prince Czartoryski, to the execration of the London Committee. 
They talk about seizing the estates of the nobles, and parceling them out 
among the people. On the 27th March, 1859, they see that the Emperor of 
the French is about to make a generous effort in favor of Italian inde- 40 
pendence. They write to the London Committee to forestall it. They beg 

The Emperor Napoleon III and Prussia 

Mazzini to stir up the country before the arrival of the French army. They 
beg him to hoist the red flag before .Napoleon shall be able to mix himself 
up in Italian affairs. On the 21 st of May, they thank the Committee in London 
for sending them the 'receipt for making Orsini's shells.’ It needs no ghost 
to tell us for what purpose they obtained this receipt. We know that these 
gentlemen belonged to the police, therefore they could not be conspirators; 
their intentions must have been pure. They doubtless intended to warn the 
Emperor against danger, and this was their reason for putting a postscript 
to their letter: 'How long will the French democrats delay making another 
attempt against Napoleon?’ After Villafranca, you might have supposed that 
every German would have been pleased that Venice was preserved to 
Austria; but they wrote to Mazzini: 'The revolution will break out in Italy, 
Hungary, Germany, Prussia, and perhaps in France, and even in Poland. The 
eyes of the world are opened to the treachery of Napoleon, and all oppressed 
nations are glad to get rid of him.’ And, further on, these Prussian police 
agents write: 'What is going on in France? Will no second Orsini come forth? 
Do the Republicans mean to do nothing to overthrow the tyrant?’ (Aug. 20, 
1859.) 

We do not wish to fix too high the responsibility of these imprudences. 
The Police has been more clumsy than culpable, for it has not had the tact 
to conceal its most secret papers from the gaze of honest men. But the 
Prussian Government should lead its police out of these tortuous paths; it 
is always wrong to counsel crime, even as a means for trying of what stuff 
men are made. 

Every one knows that if Orsini had succeeded in his criminal attempt he 
would have assassinated the future liberator of Italy, and have done more 
harm than good to his country. We may also add that if these Prussian Police, 
without any evil intent, and simply out of a stupid zeal, had got up another 
Orsini, they would have deprived Prussia of a useful ally, who is still ready 

to render her good service, provided that she will help herself."